{"id":578849,"date":"2026-02-18T07:11:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/578849\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T07:11:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T07:11:16","slug":"pablo-lopez-injury-creates-this-dismal-minnesotas-payroll-stat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/578849\/","title":{"rendered":"Pablo Lopez injury creates this dismal Minnesota&#8217;s payroll stat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/mlb\/minnesota-twins\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Twins<\/a>&#8216; contending window is closing fast, and the latest setback for the team is about to make things even more difficult for a team that appears to be in decline. Coming off a season in which they won just 70 games, the Twins are likely to be without one of their best pitchers for the entirety of the 2026 season, with starting pitcher <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/mlb\/minnesota-twins\/twins-news-pablo-lopez-could-season-ending-surgery-torn-ucl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pablo Lopez suffering a torn elbow ligament<\/a> which is likely to require surgery.<\/p>\n<p>If Lopez were to undergo surgery, then he would most certainly miss the entirety of the 2026 season \u2014 putting the Twins at such a tough spot, especially when it comes to resource allocation.<\/p>\n<p>As pointed out by Nick Halter of Axios Twin Cities, the Twins <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nickhaltermpls\/status\/2023810928391934346\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">are allocating<\/a> nearly a third of their total player payroll to two players who won&#8217;t be playing a single inning for them in 2026 \u2014 Lopez, who&#8217;s making $21.8 million, and Carlos Correa, who they&#8217;re absorbing $10 million of his contract following their trade with the Houston Astros prior to last year&#8217;s deadline.<\/p>\n<p>This is not something that teams with limited payroll budgets can afford to do, and the Twins, as a result, will find it all the more difficult to compete in the AL Central, barring huge star turns and breakouts from unexpected sources.<\/p>\n<p>Twins to continue being sellers in 2026?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3538831\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Twins-center-fielder-Byron-Buxton-vs-Rangers.jpg\" alt=\"Byron Buxton could earn $3M in AL MVP bonus money as the Twins miss the MLB postseason but his season still stands out.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"574\"  \/>Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The Twins have a few quality pieces left on the roster, with Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan headlining that list. Buxton is coming off a season with 5.0 fWAR, while Ryan has emerged as the Twins&#8217; ace, thanks to his 3.42 ERA, 3.1 fWAR season in 2025 across 171.0 innings of work.<\/p>\n<p>It might be best for the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/mlb\/minnesota-twins\/why-twins-must-trade-joe-ryan-byron-buxton-asap-after-pablo-lopez-injury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twins to fully lean into being a selling ballclub<\/a>; Buxton, as frustrated as he may be that his name is being bandied around in trade rumors, will net the Twins a hefty return. That could be wise, considering that Buxton has an injury history and the last thing Minnesota needs at present is for him to suffer a lengthy absence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Twins&#8216; contending window is closing fast, and the latest setback for the team is about to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,822,60,3190,4,1997,148],"class_list":{"0":"post-578849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-twins","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-minnesota","10":"tag-minnesota-twins","11":"tag-minnesotatwins","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-pablo-lopez","14":"tag-twins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116090390924900884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}